Aster Pharmacy, GD Assist to set up pharmacies in Bangladesh

Aster DM Healthcare has announced its entry into the Bangladesh market with the Aster Pharmacy division.

Aster Pharmacy will be operated by GD Assist in Bangladesh. Through this franchise agreement, Aster DM Healthcare and GD Assist will make products available — across segments such as nutrition, pharmaceuticals, baby care, skincare, home healthcare and others — to serve communities in the country.

Aster DM Healthcare currently operates 446 pharmacies in India, GCC and Jordan, including 201 pharmacies in India operated by Alfaone Retail Pharmacies. Aster also recorded eight million pharmacy visits in its last financial year.

Through this long-term agreement with GD Assist, Aster Pharmacy aims to expand its horizons beyond UAE, India, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan into other territories to provide pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products. GD Assist plans to open and operate a minimum of 25 stores located in high streets, communities and shopping malls of Bangladesh over a period of three years.

Alisha Moopen, deputy MD, Aster DM Healthcare, said, “Since its inception over two decades ago, Aster Pharmacy has been a one stop solution for medicines and wellness products. We have invested in our care offering and revamped the infrastructure and talent to ensure the best service experience to our customers and continued this endeavour during the pandemic to ensure patient safety and well-being. And now, we are looking to venture into a new market to serve more people and expand our footprint.”

Syed Moinuddin Ahmed, MD of GD Assist, stated, “GD Assist was established with the aspiration to become a prominent one-stop healthcare solution provider. As such, it is our great delight to partake in this new venture with Aster Pharmacy. This partnership is enabling us to step into the new era by introducing world class healthcare products of different segments, which would subsequently provide us the opportunity to cater to the healthcare needs of the people of Bangladesh, on par with international standards.”

“With its vast experience over the years and leadership positioning in a number of markets that we operate in, Aster Pharmacy is fast emerging as a global pioneer in health and wellness and integrated pharmacy concept. We are delighted to collaborate with GD Assist to launch Aster Pharmacy stores in Bangladesh which would provide the customers a very unique and superior wellness experience,” added N S Balasubramanian, CEO of Aster Retail GCC.

Farzanah Chowdhury, Director of GD Assist, said: “As we venture into this partnership with Aster Pharmacy as their operational partner for Bangladesh, we, at GD Assist, are hopeful about succeeding in setting new standards in the Bangladeshi healthcare products industry by making Aster’s world class product line in nutrition, pharmaceuticals, baby care, skincare, home healthcare available in the Bangladeshi market and thus we aspire to revolutionise the industry in the coming years.”